Truecaller wants to combat fake news with a new instant messaging solution

This is the right thing to do.

The most prudent problem across all kinds of social media platforms right now is the spread of misinformation. Last year, Facebook confirmed Russian attempt to spread false information on its platform and then both Google and Twitter also acknowledged such an effort being carried on their own platforms.

Since these information came into light, all the major social media platforms, which have also turned into one of the biggest news distribution platforms, started fact checking and flagging the authenticity of articles. Now, Truecaller is joining the fray as well. The Swedish company is working on an instant messaging service wherein users will be able to flag messages and links received by them as spam.

While in the past, the act of flagging content seemed relevant only to social platforms or messaging services like WhatsApp, Truecaller is taking it a step further. A person familiar with the development said Truecaller is developing this tool in order to combat the rapid rise of fake news. The leaked interface shows an option to report a link or message as spam and also show total number of reports that have marked a particular message as spam.

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Fake news and spread of misinformation has not only affected election result in the United States. It has also led to death of several hundreds of innocent people in countries like Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Recently, there were reports of Indians getting killed because of such false messages in remote parts of the country.

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Truecaller is one of the most widely used application in the world for identifying spam calls and text messages. By expanding its service to identify fake news and false messages, the company holds a position to help consumers understand the difference between real and fraudulent messages.